Brighten the dark winter months with this pretty votive project!

It’s always sad when the holiday decorations get tucked away for the year. They bring much light and life to the season and we all hate to say goodbye to them.

This pretty votive project can accomplish the same and bring that brightness to our longest of nights.

Create a set to liven your dining room table or fireplace mantle. They look lovely in daylight, but when illuminated with a faux votive candle, these cups layered with color and shapes come to life.

Begin by cutting several strips from a twelve inch roll of waxed paper. The height of your strip should be equal to the height your glass votive cups You’ll need two strips per votive, be precise when you cut, a paper trimmer or a ruler, blade and matt will get the job done.

Select a few of your favorite punches and a variety of colored and patterned tissue paper and punch a few shapes from each pack of tissue. Tissue paper is thin and you can easily punch at least six or seven sheets at once. If you want to punch just a couple of layers, sandwich the tissue between two sheets of text-weight paper. If you don’t, the tissue could get stuck in your punch.

Set up your ironing board, cover the board with an old, soft towel to protect it, plug in your iron and set it to a medium heat.

Lay a strip of waxed paper on the towel, and randomly place a variety of punched tissue pieces on this strip. Overlap the shapes, but don’t let them go beyond the edges of the strip. When all pieces are placed, lay a second strip of waxed paper on top of the first strip and carefully align the edges.

Gently place a thin cotton dish towel on the sandwiched paper and press the layers with the warm iron. Peek periodically at the sandwich to see if the layers are fusing -- they’ll become less transparent as they fuse. Each iron is different, so if you find your layers aren’t fusing together, turn up the heat to the next setting and try pressing them again.

Press all your layers, and let them cool. Trim away any messy edges with your paper trimmer or knife and ruler, or scissors.

Wrap a strip of fused layers around your votive cup and use a small strip of double-stick tape to adhere it to the cup.

Once your cups are wrapped, drop an artificial, battery-operated “votive” in each cup.

Create a grouping to use as a centerpiece or display. Besides the tissue paper, you can also press other materials between the layers, like feathers, thin ribbons or threads.